Reflections of the Waterside ... throughout the generations
Market Landing along the waterfront
portfolio intro ~ folio 1 ~ 2 ~ 3~ 4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 ~ 10
Overleaf ~ folio 5 link ~ further along the waterfront
 

Gathered here are images of ships in Newburyport ~ captured at fleeting moments in time throughout the generations ~ in safe harbor here at the mouth of the Merrimack River, along the Waterside. With regards to their course, of course ---

One thought ever at the fore ---
That in the Divine Ship, The World, breasting Time and Space,
All Peoples of the globe together sail,
Sail the same voyage, are bound to the same destination.
Walt Whitman (Old Age Echoes 1891; published 1897)

By row, port to starboard:

Stereograph of ship docked at the Waterside ~ 5 generations ago

Spirit of Massachusetts on her visit to port in 2003 ~ returning this Yankee Homecoming

The small tall ship Misty Isles ~ the Waterside movement's flagship (link within)
Dories docked along the Waterside ~ craft moored in the harbor ~ 4 generations ago

Stereograph of a schooner in the habor ~ bowsprit docked ship to right ~ 5 generations ago

Misty Isles dropping sail during her 2003 homecoming
Ships at the Waterside 4 or 5 generations ago

Ship moored in the Merrimack River ~ ships docked at the Waterside ~ 4 or 5 generations ago

Newburyport's waterfront a generation ago in the 1970s
Clippers ship, sailboat and small steamboat ~ docked together at the Waterside 4 generations ago

A three-quarter replica of the original clipper ship Flying Cloud ~ built in Nova Scotia some 40 years ago ~ voyaged to port & remained dockside the summer of 1966 (link within)

Ships depicted on the stained glass tiles on markers along the "historic wayes to the Waterside"


"The Ship" proves an apt metaphor for life's adventure ~ with Newburyport's enduring entrepreneurial spirit Lord Timothy Dexter offering to "take the helm in love" as we launch the next leg of the journey ~ riding "hie tides and loue tides" with the new and full moons to come.

Fulfilling his prophesy that from time to time he may come back "toue see houe you all goue on" ~ the quintessential Yankee will be back in good form for this year's Yankee Homecoming ~ crossing the Merrimack River at seven bells of the forenoon watch (11:30PM) ~ arriving by dory at the Market Landing embayment before the noontide Yankee Homecoming opening ceremony on July 29th ~ ready to dip his oar in for the Waterside community gam that follows. (Fore and aft, his Lordship's waterway and landfall is charted online at this link within.)

During the Waterside community gam ~ held after Yankee Homecoming opening ceremony at Market Landing Park (once the Middle Shipyard, the community shipyard where a vessel could be built for three pence per ton) ~ a dory will be made ready to serve in the Waterside people's float ~ later "sailing" down High Street in the Yankee Homecoming parade ~ ending this year's festival and beginning the next leg of the journey. Beyond the metaphor, in ken is the launch of all matters and things to come ~ with Yankee Homecoming bringing momentum, visibility and viability for the "peradventure" to follow.

Plans include that the adopted flagship for the Waterside movement Misty Isles will be afloat and "in a Motion of Comity" by Yankee Homecoming ~ and surely shipshape in time for the arrival of the Friendship later in August. (Visit this link without to learn more about the Friendship's visit.) This all before Misty Isles is hauled out of the water again for a major refit and restoration ~ to get her yare as she passes her 90-year landmark. With her owner/captain Ray Pike one of the Waterside people (from a different perspective across the river) ~ Misty Isles is a classic circa 1915 ketch with blue water heritage. She measures 50- foot length on deck, with a 9-foot bowsprit, a 9-foot draft, and a displacement rated from 21 - 30 tons ~ which classifies her as a Class A (small) Tall Ship®. [Link without to the specific reference on American Sail Training Association (ASTA) Web site.]

[On a much larger scale, the Tall Ship® Friendship is a full-scale reproduction of a 342-ton merchant vessel built some two hundred years before the replica. (Come to know more about the 171-foot three-masted Salem East Indiaman at this link without and visit the National Parks Service Web site offering more insight about the crafting the vessel.) After his "ship came in" (metaphorically speaking) ~ Dexter himself owned at least two merchant ships. The Mehitabel was a 171-ton Brigantine built in 1790 and the 153-ton vessel "The Congress" was afloat by the year 1792 ~ thus their size was about half that the Friendship.]

Enthused about the Friendship's upcoming visit ~ many of the Waterside people recall Flying Cloud's visit to port forty years ago and the excitement that engendered in the community. In anticipation of a bright future ~ come to know more about the prospects at the community gam ~ "peradventures" which include extension of that boardwalk to Cashman Park and Captain Ray Pike's Mouth of the Merrimack Seamanship program ...

To today's generations of the Waterside people and "those who may join in the strain" ~ The Ship Is Ready! Come Home! Come Home!


See the Yankee Homecoming program book for more reference ~ the Comity.org link within for more inference ~ and join the Waterside community gam for more conference about where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.

[Vintage photographs courtesy of the Newburyport Archival Center at the Newburyport Public Library; Image of Flying Cloud availed from Yankee Homecoming program book on archive; other images copyright Bright iDear.]

 
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